Saturday, December 01, 2007

Saw this the other day, and the Grouchy One noted it. The more I think about it, it's like reading part of the script for a sitcom. A bad, very PC one.Fliers posted across campus summed up the thrust of their conversation: "Should you vote for Barack Obama because of your race, or should you vote for Hillary Clinton because you are a woman?"

Apparently the concept of "What candidate of which party do I think would do the best job?" doesn't count.

Back when it was still funny, I used to sometimes watch Will and Grace, and they had an episode where they were trying to convince each other to vote for their candidate: Will because "He's -, -, and GAY!", Grace because "She's -, -, and a WOMAN!" In the end, they decided not to vote at all, until Jack walked in and mentioned he'd voted. They asked for who and he said "The black one". The two looked at each other, then him and chorused "There's a BLACK one?" and headed for the door.

That's pretty much what this crap is: "Screw competence, ideas and so forth, I have to vote for the candidate in MY minority/type/most PC class."

I just love these two bits:Patricia Wilson-Smith, a 42-year-old information technology specialist who lives in Lawrenceville, contends that Obama would be the best leader because he reaches out to all Americans. She argues that Clinton is too divisive and too much of a Washington insider.and"The reason we've never been close to running that truly feasible black candidate is because we've never had one who was interested in governing the entire nation," she wrote, "and not just championing the cause of blacks."

"...reaches out to ALL Americans..." "...too much of a Washington insider." Let's see, we've got two socialist hoplophobes who want to run our lives... two pretty much lifetime politicians... One's trading on having been the President's wife and the other on being a one-term senator- who hasn't finished his first term- who spent some time growing up outside the U.S.... one's trading on being female, one's trading on being black...

Friday, November 30, 2007

Inspections to make sure you have your guns 'properly' stored. And don't have too many. And don't have something not approved of.

The Chief Firearms Office is piloting an initiative that involves notifying older firearms owners, in Toronto, who own more than 10 firearms, including a restricted or prohibited firearm(s). These firearms owners will be required to have their firearms inspected by a firearms officer designated by the Chief Firearms Officer. Each owner has been provided a pamphlet from the Canadian Firearms Centre setting out the requirements for safe storage and display. The inspector will also be providing the firearms owners with information, from the Canadian Firearms Centre, on how to arrange for the handling of their firearms in the event of death or incapacity.

The Firearms Act provides for a firearms officer, designated in writing by the Chief Firearms Officer, the authority to conduct inspections in certain circumstances, including where the inspector believes on reasonable grounds that there is a firearms collection, a prohibited firearm or more than 10 firearms. Where the inspection involves a dwelling house, the Firearms Act requires the inspector provide reasonable notice and obtain the occupant’s consent. The Firearms Act also requires the owner or person in charge of a place to give the inspector reasonable assistance to enable him to carry out the inspection. (bold mine)

I'll bet that, given the chance, they'll arrange for 'in the event of deal or incapacity' to mean "We take them. No you can't leave your father's rifle to your kids. We Take Them." Also note that just having a 'collection' or 'more than 10 firearms' means "We can come into your home and searchinspect."

Further along it states "No force will be used in conducting the inspection." However, since it also states "...required..." earlier, you know what that means: "Let me in or I'll be back with a warrant and turn the house upside-down."

to carry their balls in. You really need to read this at Blackfive:Later that same day, Herrera would walk through a minefield drawing deadly rounds away from their intended mark. He lost both his legs in the engagement, all the while keeping his M-1 Garand Rifle trained on the source stronghold thereby allowing his brothers-in-arms to flank and overrun the enemy position.

And crap like this is why I generally don't watch political debates. I'd thank the man at Random for pointing out the first and his opinion on the second, but the first has pissed me off so bad I don't know whether to thank him or be pissed because I was fairly mellow before reading it.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

In response to the demonstration, teacher Gillian Gibbons was moved from the women's prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her safety, her lawyer said.

As somebody said about the riots in France, "Muslims shooting, burning and calling for murder: this is a surprise?"

"One of the things my mum said today was that 'I don't want any resentment towards Muslim people,'" John Gibbons said, relaying part of a telephone conversation with her.

Too late, madam. Not all muslims, but definitely toward the BPM's that Tam referred to as 'Self-detonating neolithic goatherds'.

Take note of the wording here:Several hundred protesters, not openly carrying weapons, marched from the square to Unity High School, about a mile away, where Gibbons worked. They chanted slogans outside the school, which is closed and under heavy security, then headed toward the nearby British Embassy. They were stopped by security forces two blocks away from the embassy.

'...not openly...', hmmm.

One good thing, a number of muslim groups in Britain are openly talking about what a pile of nonsense this charge and conviction was, which is a Good Thing. At least if they truly mean it. Which, from the wording, most of them to.

A: the lady is very damn lucky Sudan doesn't want to piss of Britain overmuch, otherwise she'd be bleeding from the lashes.B: NOBODY who goes to a muslim country should expect anything resembling common sense in the west. Especially if they're in a place like Sudan.

Walter Williams and some others have been saying it with him for some time, but- just maybe- having someone like this add to it will help.

Yeah, that sounds dumb, but an awful lot of people pay a lot more attention to sportswriters and broadcasters than they do someone like Williams or Sowell, so maybe reading/hearing this from Whitlock will add to the effect.You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.

Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your bitch," nothing will change.

Damn straight. Back a few years when I did have cable I stopped watching MTV- at all- for two reasons:Outside of late night, they don't have music videos, just their little cultural-indoctrination shows,And when they did show videos they tended to concentrate on rap, and the most nasty gangster-rap at that.I have no desire to listen to that garbage. And I detest the effect it has on people. When I see a mid-20's black guy in the store- with his wife & kids- and he has his pants halfway down his ass, there's a problem. When you hear accounts of black kids telling other black kids that trying to actually study and get good grades is 'acting white', there's a damn problem.

Few years ago Cindy Margolis had a late-night tv show(so I have a weakness for pretty women in lingerie, shut up) and one show I caught was talking about "pimpin' ", which I'd never heard of. And one of the male idiots involved in this, when asked about it, said he "likes the pimpin' lifestyle", etc. I was standing there dumbfounded. Admittedly I don't think I've ever been on the 'leading edge' of social change, but still... Growing up, being called a pimp was one of the nastier things you could call a guy, but this clown and the girls around him were speaking downright glowingly of the 'pimp lifestyle'. Just flat amazing. And within a couple of years of that I heard of pimp and ho costumes for little kids for Halloween. Which convinced me(as if I'd really needed it) there were things my kids would never see as cool, or something to emulate. Which is why they got an explanation of where the pants-down-around-your-ass 'style' came from(which apparently led to a certain amount of hilarity when son told a friend "Hey, you want to look like someone's prison bitch, go ahead.")

Which spreads this mess out a bit, but the fact is that, while black kids get the worst of the effect sooner, it affects all our kids. Sooner or later, one way or another.

just a little bit?Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), one of the leading anti-war voices in the House Democratic Caucus, is back from a trip to Iraq and he now says the "surge is working." This could be a huge problem for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders, who are blocking approval of the full $200 billion being sought by President Bush for combat operations in Iraq in 2008.

Let's see, I think he's still trying to avoid dealing with his slanders and lies about the Marines at Haditha, has a LOOONG history of doing everything he can to help cause defeat in Iraq, and NOW he says this? If you put on your Karnak hat you might say "What is a dirtbag politician with lots of people back 'home' telling him he's history?" Or something like that.

is facing 'humiliation'?UNITED NATIONS — Facing its most ambitious peacekeeping deployment ever in Darfur, the United Nations soon might face "humiliation" — as the Sudanese government, rebel groups, troop- and equipment-contributing countries, the U.N.'s own peacekeeping department, and the General Assembly's budgetary organ blame each other for the force's failure, officials say.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

permission from his landlord to travel out of the county. Apparently, some people think that was a good idea.The UK Government is not just interested in using global warming to raise new green taxes and to further hike fuel costs, but it is also contemplating allocating "personal carbon allowances." The way these work is that you will be granted a fixed amount of carbon to use each year. Each time you travel in a plane, buy petrol, go shopping or eat out would be recorded on a plastic card. The more frugal could sell spare carbon allowances to those who want to "indulge" themselves. But if you were to run out of your carbon allowance, you could be barred from flying or driving.

The government will thus be able to prevent its citizens from traveling both inside and outside the United Kingdom under the guise of managing carbon allowances.

Just bloody amazing. We've got problems with the governmental attitude on driving that 'driving is a Privilege', which I consider absolute bullshit: to say you have a right to travel but no right to personal transportation is nonsense. But none of the idiot politicians have tried to pull something like this on us. As yet. I'm sure Kennedy & Pelosi & Schumer & Clinton & Co. would just love to.

Fortunately, even they realize what would happen if they did: tar and feathers are so hard on the complexion.

what might come of naming a stuffed animal 'Muhammad' in Sudan.A British teacher facing 40 lashes in Sudan over a school teddy bear named Muhammad will discover today whether she will be charged with blasphemy.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, is being questioned for a second day by police in Khartoum on suspicion of insulting Islam's prophet for allowing her seven-year-old pupils to give the toy the name of the prophet.

Sudan. You know, the place where they still practice slavery? Especially on blacks and 'non-believers'? Where they use sharia law? What the hell was she thinking?

over here, which caused me to look around and find this; among his other bits of wisdom:4. Give you the remote control during the game.This one is inherently stupid because it implies that all guys like to watch "the game." Since I'd rather be shot in the chest with projectile diarrhea than watch "the game," I'll assume the author meant something worthy of watching, such as Ren & Stimpy, in which case you need to put the bitch down if she touches your remote.and7. His hands always find yours.This is one of those things women read and say "AWW HOW ROMANTIC." I have news for you: holding hands is stupid. Women don't know the first thing about being romantic. Only lesbians hold hands anyway; allow me to explain. The only time it's acceptable to hold hands with anyone is if you're at a peace vigil. Guys don't go to peace vigils, period. If you do, you have to surrender your balls and get a sex transplant because you're a bitch; in either case, you're a woman, and when two women hold hands it can only lead to one thing as far as I'm concerned.

Noted this the other day, found some followup here and here, among other places. Among other things to note:Police investigators and several eyewitnesses corroborate the patrolmen’s version of the accident. The police car was going at a normal speed, no sirens, no hot pursuit. The mini-motorcycle came down a side street at high speed and made a left turn, crashing directly into the police car. The police remained on the scene for approximately twenty to thirty minutes until the fire department ambulance arrived....Twenty-five policemen injured, dozens of cars burned, shops destroyed, individuals assaulted. Blind with rage, the rampaging mob found time to steal before smashing and burning. For the brother of Mushin, one of the victims, “it’s not violence, it’s an expression of rage.”Please take special note of that: "...one of the victims,". 'Victims' means someone did it to them, they were wronged and therefore "We have a right to do this because(in chorus now) We're Victims!"

And take special note of this from a blogger in Paris: The French Intifada never ended; it simply leveled off at a jaw-dropping 14 police officers injured per day (that's 2,500 annually) the last I saw it mentioned in any news source.Fourteen officers injured PER DAY, EVERY DAY. Just amazing.

From the Pajama's Media report: Villiers le Bel is in the administrative district of Sarcelles / Garges-les-Gonesses about 20 km north of Paris. Not so long ago Sarcelles was the home sweet home of Jewish refugees from North Africa; today it is their nightmare. They endure constant attacks and harassment from the permanently enraged African-Arab-Muslim residents who live cheek by jowl with their still neat clean streets.'Permanently enraged' do indeed seem to describe these people.

Gateway Pundit has this report, and some earlier ones you can scroll down to.

Sarkozy will have his hands full dealing with this mess. Let's hope he can actually do something about it.

with this. Gives the impression he's trying to A: Make 'country people' happy by saying "I'll allow you to have guns", and appease 2nd Amendment voters by saying "See? I don't want to ban all guns!"B: Make 'city people' happy by saying "You people don't need guns."C: Make the ban-gun-ownership people happy by saying "I have to allow for some exceptions for people owning guns to keep the right-wing nuts happy."

You know he's full of crap, I know he's full of crap, and his supporters either know it and will accept it because "He's Obama!", or don't know he's full of crap, and will use this to say "See, he does NOT want to ban your guns, you disgusting hatemongers!"

All boils down to "He ain't our friend." No matter what word games he plays.

wasn't big, a 525-round box of Remington .22's. Due to circumstances, that was it. Wish I could count some stuff a month earlier(ran across a deal), but I'll respect the rules here.

Right now I'm looking at a house that definitely needs some neatening and rearranging. No, not just from cases of ammo(I wish), just the general stuff that gets spread around in the course of time. And since there's things I'd much rather do than the picking up & rearranging...

On November 27, 2006, newspapers reported that the FBI and Georgia state authorities were investigating the case. Atlanta's police chief Richard Pennington placed eight narcotics officers involved in the "no-knock" raid on paid leave. Chief Pennington professed to be puzzled by conflicting versions of the incident, promised to cooperate with the investigators, and "said his department was reviewing its use of 'no-knock' raids after the shootout. The warrants are common in narcotics cases when officers fear suspects may try to dispose of drugs or evidence in the time it takes authorities to gain access to the home.

Yesterday, November 21, 2007, Kathryn Johnston's family filed civil suit against the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Department, the police officers involved, and their supervisors. "The suit charges the corrupt practices of the Police Department led to violations of the U.S. Constitution and state law."

let alone Clinton:Fred:The Second Amendment does more than guarantee to all Americans an unalienable right to defend one’s self. William Blackstone, the 18th century English legal commentator whose works were well-read and relied on by the Framers of our Constitution, observed that the right to keep and bear firearms arises from “the natural right of resistance and self-preservation.” This view, reflected in the Second Amendment, promotes both self-defense and liberty. It is not surprising then that the generation that had thrown off the yoke of British tyranny less than a decade earlier included the Second Amendment in the Constitution and meant for it to enable the people to protect themselves and their liberties.

vs.

Rudy Giuliani’s version of the 2nd Amendment:

"A well-armed celebrity population being necessary for the well-being of a mayoral candidate’s campaign coffers (and for getting invited to all the cool parties), the right of the rich and famous to keep and bear arms in New York City shall not be infringed."

Mitt Romney’s version:

"The right of the people to own bolt-action hunting rifles and pump-action shotguns (provided they can afford to make it though the licensing procedure) shall not be infringed."

More here:Lahem is accused by the prosecutor general of "belligerent behavior, talking to the media for the purpose of perturbing the judiciary, and hurting the country's image," according to an official letter he received Monday.

Since he started practicing law almost five years ago, Lahem has defended clients whom other lawyers refused, including a school administrator suspended for criticizing the religious establishment, a man convicted of promoting homosexuality for saying it was genetic, three political reformists seeking a constitutional monarchy, and the first Saudis suing the country's powerful religious police.

Lahem said that losing his license would be a blow to the country's budding human rights movement.

"If I am banned from practicing law, nobody will dare go up against the judiciary again," said Lahem, a slight man with a limp from a childhood accident. "If I win, it will open a new chapter for human rights in Saudi Arabia."

Ever notice how many muslim/predominantly muslim countries have laws that'll put you in prison for 'hurting the country's image'? Which can consist of saying "Your Honor, you are a poopy-head." Kind of sensitive, aren't they?

and Paris starts smoking.Fires are raging in the banlieue tonight. Two boys aged 15 and 16 riding on a mini-motorcycle (prohibited on the road) hit a police car this afternoon in Villiers-le-Bel. The boys, who weren’t wearing helmets, were killed. Hundreds of enraged men and boys are tearing up the neighborhood.

Let's see, two teenagers, check. Illegal for street use, check. No helmets, check. Crash and are killed, check. Adherents of the Religion of Submission rioting and burning, check. And it couldn't possibly be the fault of the kids, check:Interviewed by Le Parisien, the uncle of MoushinSouhhali, one of the victims, says he understands the rage; it’s terrible to lose a 15 year-old boy. His body, claims the uncle, was dumped at the fire station with no respect. The police who, in his opinion, caused the accident were nowhere to be seen. He heard they were speeding. His nephew was a good boy, not a delinquent.

It's usually terrible when some dumbass kid dies for being a dumbass: it's worse when it's used as an excuse to riot and burn. The last time, two tried to hide in a power substation when running from police, got into the equipment and were electrocuted(fault of the cops, of course). This account doesn't say if the cops were chasing the kids or if this was a straightforward accident, and it doesn't really matter. Because these clowns were going to use any incident as an excuse for the next riot. "...claims the uncle..." "...in his opinion..." "He heard..." And the inevitable "...was a good boy, not a delinquent."

Uncle, maybe someone there said it, but there's nothing in the articles I've seen calling him one. And it doesn't matter. He did the kind of thing that regularly gets teenagers all over the world killed. It doesn't necessarily make him a delinquent, it just means that he was one of those for whom doing something dumb came with the death penalty. Unless there's something nasty that nobody is talking about, for you to 'understand the rage' and excuse the rioting based on that is disgusting. You're either unhinged with grief, or using this as an excuse for illegal acts. One is regrettable; the other is cold and disgusting.

one of his little 'examples' was "It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that's what the British Empire did - in India, for example." Has he ever actually read anything about that time? It hasn't been a specific area of study for me, but I do recall a few things.

For instance, for some years after the British moved in, the Brit army in the area was the armed forces of John Company, the British East India Company. And their concern wasn't 'administering and normalizing it', it was ensuring things stayed calm so the Company could make money. Lots of it. I'm sure some weenie will jump up and say "We're in Iraq to make money for Halliburton!", etc. Horsecrap. We could have had Iraqi oil, and a lot else, simply by making deals with Saddam, without all the expense and trouble of using the military.

There's a lot more. My level of respect for Williams has never been what you would call 'high'; now it's pretty mucn nonexistent.

Last week he was on Glenn Beck's show, and one of the questions was about that horrible 'health care' scheme he signed just before leaving office. He went on & on about it being 'a proper free-market solution' to health-care problems. Bullshit. As evidenced by this note at Wizbang:This program was touted as the way to save money for everybody (well, except for those greedy doctors and insurance companies), and was to be a model for a national plan.

So, what's the Globe's solution? Any of you not saying "raise taxes!," stay after class for detention.And so forth. They also take note of another murder turned loose for 'good behavior' and subsequently murdering again. In a state where, if you have a gun for protection from such life forms but don't have proper state permission, you go to jail. As Bruce put it when he lived in that state, "Live Free or DieHere" seems to be the state motto.

to kiss my ass?THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.

Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the worst of all worlds”.

In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.

I'd suggest you read the whole thing, just to get the full flavor of his disdain for us. I will note a couple of things:He urged it to launch a “generous and intelligent programme of aid directed to the societies that have been ravaged; a check on the economic exploitation of defeated territories; a demilitarisation of their presence”.

Well, let's see, you mean like helping the Afghans and Iraqis rebuild their nations, after stomping the people who were dominating and murdering them, you pompous twit? And what 'economic exploitation'? If we were 'exploiting' the Iraqis, we'd be shipping their oil over here at about $45/barrel. And it is our aim to 'demilitarize' them of our armed presence as soon as possible. So, I repeat, kiss my ass.

And of COURSE we're worse by far than those slightly troublesome moslem countries:In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its “political solutions were not the most impressive”.

He commends the Muslim practice of praying five times a day, which he says allows the remembrance of God to be “built in deeply in their daily rhythm”. I guess by their 'daily rhythm" he means things like this:A woman in Saudi Arabia sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang raped has confessed to adultery, the justice ministry said as it tried to fend off mounting criticism. So very Godlike of them, isn't it?

half like you've been gargling abrasive is bad enough: then I started looking at some of the news.

NPR is _____. You fill in the blank.Edelstein knew some people hated the exploitative display of Iraqi corpses at the film's end, noting that De Palma thinks rubbing Americans' faces with the collateral damage will get us out of Iraq: "I think most Americans are immune to those techniques, but I respect his impulse. 'Redacted' is a crude piece of work but it's the kind of outright agitprop that rarely makes it to the big screen."And they LIKE it.

Britain(I know, recurring theme), formerly Great Britain, where a revolver in the pocket was simply a tool kept handy*, may be well and truly screwed:GUN laws should be tightened and BB guns banned from shops, says a Greenock sheriff.

The demand came as a 16-year-old Port Glasgow youth pleaded guilty to having a plastic gun and pellets as ammunition in the street.

Please not he hadn't done anything, he just had it. Can't allow that, you know.A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said from 1 October anyone selling air weapons had to be a registered firearms dealer. The age to purchase such items also raised to 18.

She added that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill had written to the UK secretary of state for justice about Scotland getting powers to legislate on firearms.Which will probably involve banning anything that somebody might decide could be seen as a weapon by someone. I've rarely been so happy that various of my ancestors got the hell out when they did and came here.

I do have to note that some good things are going on, aside from the troops, ours and Iraqi, kicking the ass off AQI and JAM. For instance, Pimple Bloomberg of NYFC had his imperial demand booted: the courts just denied Bloomberg's motion to dismiss and ordered him to sit for a deposition. ("What do you MEAN I can't say whatever I want about somebody and violate the law? What's thw world coming to?" Hopefully you having your ass sued off, and preferably prosecuted.)

And we have the words of Mark Steyn on the coming election:You want an anti-war Republican? A pro-abortion Republican? An anti-gun Republican? A pro-illegal immigration Republican? You got 'em! Short of drafting Fidel Castro and Mullah Omar, it's hard to see how the tent could get much bigger. As the new GOP bumper sticker says, "Celebrate Diversity."

Over on the Democratic side, meanwhile, they've got a woman, a black, a Hispanic, a preening metrosexual with an angled nape – and they all think exactly the same.

Overall, I'm still leaning way over toward Fred Thompson.

In Philadelphia, someone slaps the editorial writers on the idiocy of their stands. Using their own words to do it.

And Mr. & Mrs. Kim have safely made the beachhead for their invasion. So things kind of balance out.

Added: Aw, crap, there's just no damned excuse for this:An 82-year-old hero from World War II died in Glasgow, Scotland because of rules prohibiting dispatchers from notifying an ambulance crew that was 500-yards away. The Daily Record reports former British soldier Ernie Rutkiewicz choked to death as his daughter frantically begged for help.

An ambulance crew was on meal break nearby, but government rules prohibit them from being disturbed and in fact they do not even show up as available on the dispatchers' computers. So it took 22 minutes for help to arrive and by then it was too late.

And I just ran across this Steyn article, which includes this:But that doesn't entirely explain it, does it? Earlier this year, Channel 4 in London broadcast a documentary called Undercover Mosque in which various imams up and down the land were caught on tape urging men to beat their wives and toss homosexuals off cliffs. Viewers reported some of the statements to the local constabulary. The West Midlands police then decided to investigate not the fire-breathing clerics but the TV producers. As the coppers saw it, insofar as any "hate crime" had been perpetrated, it lay not in the urgings and injunctions of the imams but in a TV production so culturally insensitive as to reveal the imams' views to the general public. As The Spectator's James Forsyth put it, "The reaction of West Midlands police revealed a mindset that views the exposure of a problem as more of a problem than the problem itself."andProfessor Rosner, Daniel Silva's fictional murder victim, would have understood. At the scene of his ritual slaughter there are no protesters, just piles of tulips and the banner "ONE AMSTERDAM, ONE PEOPLE" — one mass delusion. It's not just that you'll get your throat cut. But that you'll get it cut and they'll still string the same sappy happy-face multiculti banner over the crime scene.

*One of the money quotes from the article: We are so self-congratulatory about our officially disarmed society, and so dismissive of colonial rednecks, that we have forgotten that within living memory British citizens could buy any gun – rifle, pistol, or machinegun – without any licence. When Dr Watson walked the streets of London with a revolver in his pocket, he was a perfectly ordinary Victorian or Edwardian. Charlotte Brontë recalled that her curate father fastened his watch and pocketed his pistol every morning when he got dressed; Beatrix Potter remarked on a Yorkshire country hotel where only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver; in 1909, policemen in Tottenham borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by (and were joined by other armed citizens) when they set off in pursuit of two anarchists unwise enough to attempt an armed robbery. We now are shocked that so many ordinary people should have been carrying guns in the street; the Edwardians were shocked rather by the idea of an armed robbery.

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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling